ADVENTURES IN FILM « Galleryloulou’s Weblog

ADVENTURES IN FILM « Galleryloulou’s Weblog

ADVENTURES IN FILM

     Smiley’s Dice  Adventures in Livingness

The throw of the dice this week lands on adventures in the year of blessings.

Had I known I’d be writing from a Victorian home, with a window facing the southwest, filled with pine and spruce trees and a Mediterranean blue sky;  I wouldn’t have loathed that 100 square foot studio back in 1994 and 95. Now I love the studio because it taught me to live without comfort.  I cramped out for two years in Solana Beach. Two-hundred queen palms tranquilized the neurosis of living in squirrel like quarters.  I had California sunshine and the pacific ocean to sandwich between the scarcity of profit or progress.   I loved that studio for what it taught me.

  This year erupted with lessons of the same principle.  We began with dismal sales, empty streets, and isolation, into a fantasia of surprises. None of them came with any warning.  When a note was pinned to my door as a possible location for the film Brothers, there was no stopping me.                 “By the way, whose in the movie?” I asked Clay, the Location Scout.

               ” Sam Shepard, Toby Maguire, Natalie Portman, Jake Gallenhaal.  They’ll all be in your house for the scene.”

               “Sam Shepard in the house?”

               ”You like him–everyone does–he’s so cool.”

               “You don’t understand.  Sam is half the reason I ended up here.”                               

                “You’ll have to tell him. “    

 

I used to read about Sam and Jessica in the early eighties, high tailing it out of Los Angeles for Santa Fe. I thought these two know how to live.   I read about their ranch and the wide-open hospitality that greeted them. I knew I had to come see for myself.  Over the years, I’ve spotted them here and in Los Angeles.   I’m not a stargazer. Only a select few get my attention, and they did.

 

 I retreated to the upstairs while the film crew went to work transforming our gallery into a military family home. They painted, wallpapered, and then re designed the décor.   On the forth day  I watched the trucks unload furniture, then came the drapery and the lighting. By the sixth day, I was living in Sam Shepard’s home.  The set designers and location scouts became roommates; entering and exiting as I continued to live around them. I watched  as they created the tapestry of a set design; down to fitting in the pieces of a puzzle for display.  I took notice of the tiny details after they left; mail and bills in the desk, rain coats and boots on the entry hooks, and photographs of Toby Maguire on my mantelpiece. I lived with the set two weeks. Alice and Bugsy found their favorite napping chairs.  When the crew left, the house felt empty-I’d gotten so use to their laughter and companionship.

The day of the shoot we moved across the street to the hotel. A new

brigade of film security formed a circle around the house. Each time I crossed their path, they backed up for me, and let me through.

I squeezed through the kitchen and was greeted with new technicians, producers, and photographers. It was like being on the busiest school bus and you knew everyone. I asked to get  in my bathroom to fetch my lipstick.     

            ” LouLou  needs make-up,..” a woman shouted.  They ran off to find the make-up artist. ” No, No– really. I  just need lipstick.” 

      “All quite on the set –shooting!” Everyone all at once comes to attention.   I watched Sam Shepard on the monitor; tall and slinky with that wild crown of hair and primitive eyes. He still has the outdoor boyish look, like he just walked up from the lake.   

  

The shoot lasted two days.  On the third day I returned early in the morning. The cameras, lighting, trucks, generators, carts, black drapes; all of it gone. They worked until three in the morning—in the snow.  The following night I walked into La Posada Staab House bar. There was an empty seat next to Sam.  I asked him if  I could sit down.    “Yea, sure.”   “ I’m Loulou, you  just filmed at my house.”

   “ Oh really. That’s a beautiful house.  I loved that house. When was it built?” We talked about the old house, horses, and Saratoga. He was a kind man; a good listener, and a good story teller. 

It took a few days to adjust back to life without the creative crew on board.

 The production disrupted my life, and that was a blessing. The chance to fit into the creation of an artistic performance; whether it is dance, music or film should happen more often.  They were the professionals, working 16 hour days without complaint. The promises they made, they kept. 

 After they left I returned to the desk and determinedly continued submitting stories every morning. I asked a New York pal to elevator my story up to the New York Post. Several days later, the editor emailed a request for a story about growing up with gangsters.  All the years vanished; the shed, the rejections, and the hopelessness.  Like my dad used to say,

” Your whole life can change overnight.” 

 Nothing GREAT happens without a crew; you the readers are mine. You’ve kept me throwing the dice. THANK YOU.

Any dice to throw Email: folliesls@aol.com